The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

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Sunday, January 6, 2019

The New York Times Incentivizes Hamas Violence - Alan M. Dershowitz

​by Alan M. Dershowitz

While Hamas is happy to boast
openly about their fighters tearing at the border fences in Gaza and
hiding behind civilians to evade Israeli soldiers—the New York Times
makes no mention of this.

While Hamas is happy to boast
openly about their fighters tearing at the border fences in Gaza and
hiding behind civilians to evade Israeli soldiers—the New York Times
makes no mention of this. Israeli soldiers are portrayed as faceless
killing machines, without a single reference to the fire kites, terror
tunnels, rockets or cross border explosive devices utilized by the
Palestinians, or to the double war crime of Hamas targeting Israeli
civilians by firing rockets from behind Palestinian civilians.

These Israeli civilians are not occupiers or usurpers. They live
in Israel proper not in occupied or disputed territory. This area was
built from scratch by Israelis on barren desert land and the Israelis
have a right to be protected from fire bombs and mobs determined to
breach the protective fence. How would other nations respond to such
threats? Certainly not by treating these dangerous mobs as peaceful
protestors merely exercising their freedom of speech and assembly.

The Times's absurd conclusion that the shooter may have committed a "war crime," ignores the law of war crimes.

Contrast what Israel does with how the Palestinians treat
terrorists who willfully target and kill Jewish children, women and
other civilians. The Palestinian Authority pays their families rewards –
in effect bounties -- for their willful acts of murder. Hamas promotes
and lionizes terrorists who kill Jews. But you would not know any of
that from reading the one-sided New York Times screed....All in all, it is a shockingly irresponsible report.

In the Sunday New York Times — the most widely read issue of
the week -- the lead story was about a young Israeli soldier whose
bullet ricocheted off the ground and killed a young Palestinian medic
who had admitted to being a human shield and who was videoed throwing a
smoke bomb. The next day— in the less well-read Monday issue — the Times
reported on the murder and torture committed at the hands Afghan troops
affiliated with and trained by the American CIA. The piece opens with
the troops shooting and burning an entire family including a
three-year-old girl. The number of deaths associated with these units
(who at times were mistaken for ISIS) could not be verified but accounts
put them at hundreds in one month. Apparently, the Times's
editors believe that the Israeli story, involving one soldier who shot
one Palestinian under questionable circumstances, deserves wider
coverage than deliberate massacres perpetrated by Afghan troops trained
by the CIA.

The report's bias is clear from the introduction of the article and
persists throughout the reporting. These reporters constantly
characterized as "protesters," large groups of Palestinians that include
violent Hamas fighters who carry weapons and maps of civilian targets.
The Times's reporters portray the "protestors'" goals as "risking
their lives to make a point" or "to break through the fence and return
to their ancestral homes in what is now Israel." The goal of many of the
Hamas fighters was, in actuality, to break through the fence and kidnap
and kill Israeli civilians. The report accuses the Israelis of using "a
policy that has taken the lives of nearly 200 Palestinians." Their
biased reporting leaves the reader with the impression that all the
people killed were civilians, although many were armed Hamas fighters.
Even Hamas acknowledges that many of those killed were its combatant
fighters.

Hamas
Fighters Prepare To Shoot Against Israeli Targets - GAZA CITY, GAZA
STRIP - UNDATED: This handout photo from the Palestinian Islamic
Resistance Movement (Hamas) group shows armed Hamas activists to prepare
what appears to be homemade Qassam rockets that can be shot towards an
Israeli settlements in a Gaza Strip. The mortar shells appear to be
similar to those fired by Hamas and other military (Photo by Hamas via
Getty Images)

While Hamas is happy to boast openly about their fighters tearing at
the border fences in Gaza and hiding behind civilians to evade Israeli
soldiers—the New York Times makes no mention of this. Israeli
soldiers are portrayed as faceless killing machines, without a single
reference to the fire kites, terror tunnels, rockets or cross border
explosive devices utilized by the Palestinians, or to the double war
crime of Hamas targeting Israeli civilians by firing rockets from behind
Palestinian civilians. The goal of these Hamas-directed "protests" was
to cross the border and kill or kidnap Israeli civilians using
Palestinian civilians as human shields in order to maximize deaths of
Palestinians so they can cry war crimes. We can see this play out in the
IDF video which the Times characterizes as being "tendentiously
edited." However, they fail to acknowledge that it accurately shows
al-Najjar throwing a smoke bomb and declaring herself a human shield.
Let the Times show the entire unedited video and have its readers decide whether it was fairly edited.

The report omits the trauma and wounds experienced by Israeli
civilian residents who live near the fence. For days, the Israelis had
lethal fire bombs, burning tires, and rocks hurled at them. These
Israeli civilians are not occupiers or usurpers. They live in Israel
proper not in occupied or disputed territory. This area was built from
scratch by Israelis on barren desert land and the Israelis have a right
to be protected from fire bombs and mobs determined to breach the
protective fence. How would other nations respond to such threats?
Certainly not by treating these dangerous mobs as peaceful protestors
merely exercising their freedom of speech and assembly.

As it always does, Israel will fully investigate the circumstances
leading to the death of al-Najjar. Reasonable people might agree or
disagree with the outcome of any such investigation, but Israel has a
good record of punishing soldiers who have exceeded their authority and
engaged in improper use of lethal force. The Times's absurd
conclusion that the shooter may have committed a "war crime," ignores
the law of war crimes. Reasonable mistakes about who is or is not a
combatant do not constitute a war crime. Moreover, the court that has
jurisdiction over war crimes, the International Criminal Court, has no
jurisdiction to investigate individual acts by soldiers if the nation to
which they belong conducts reasonable investigations, as does Israel.
Contrast what Israel does with how the Palestinians treat terrorists who
willfully target and kill Jewish children, women and other civilians.
The Palestinian Authority pays their families rewards – in effect
bounties -- for their willful acts of murder. Hamas promotes and
lionizes terrorists who kill Jews. But you would not know any of that
from reading the one-sided New York Times screed.

Israel makes mistakes and sometimes overreacts in self-defense. But a biased one-sided story in the Times
only encourages Hamas to use more human shields so as to increase
civilian deaths and make the false case for war crimes. As long as the Times
and other media continue to approach this issue in a biased manner, we
can expect to see the cycle of Hamas's criminal behavior continue. All
in all, it is a shockingly irresponsible report.

Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School and author of The Case Against the Democratic House Impeaching Trump, Hot Books, 2019. Distinguished Senior Fellow of Gatestone Institute.Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13498/the-new-york-times-incentivizes-hamas-violence Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter